Government intends to challenge the High Court ruling by Justice William Ramlal that no person can hold the offices of chancellor and chief justice simultaneously, President Bharrat Jagdeo has stated.
Jagdeo’s statement to the media in Berbice came after an earlier government press release had said that the ruling could and “may very well be challenged.”
The Government Informa-tion Agency (GINA) quoted the president as saying, “I just want to emphasize that we intend to challenge that ruling.
We don’t think that it took into consideration all the facts of the case, especially the difficulty of concluding agreement in the new consultative process that was established by the national assembly and by the new constitution.”
Justice Ramlal had said in his ruling that holding both offices at the same time was unconstitutional.
Both positions are currently being held by Chief Justice Carl Singh, who is Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary.
The president asserted that long before the ruling, the public had been informed that “we had started the process of consultation with the leader of the Opposition to fill the position, both Chief Justice and Chancellor,” adding that the ruling was not going to affect that process, which the government would continue.
The government’s statement had said too that Justice Ramlal’s ruling seemed “lacking, having failed to take into account the constitutional silence on a time frame within which consultation between His Excellency the President and the leader of the opposition should be concluded.”
